<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Being Blue by DLCATS</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29852064">Being Blue</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/DLCATS/pseuds/DLCATS'>DLCATS</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Voltron: Legendary Defender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Ages are not Cannonical, Author's Universe, Blues are Murdered, Classifications, M/M, Not Beta Read, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Purples are Plebians, Reds are Elite, class marks, soul marks</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 23:40:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,968</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29852064</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/DLCATS/pseuds/DLCATS</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>At the age of sixteen everyone is given a mark, a mark that will determine if they are an Elite (red) if they are a Plebian (purple) or if they will be sentenced to death (blue).<br/>
Most people get purple, the rare few get red, and it's taboo to even mention those who get blue.<br/>
On Lance's sixteenth birthday, he gets blue.</p><p>~~~</p><p>Lance sat silently in his bed; blanket tucked carefully over his head to hide the rest of the world from him. His hand hovering in front of his face, shaking.<br/>
</p><p>There’s no way.<br/>
</p><p>Tears fill his eyes as a dot slowly begins to take shape on the back of his hand just, darkening in color as it grew to the size of a quarter.<br/>
</p><p>This can’t be.<br/>
</p><p>Somewhere farther into the house a clock chimes the hour as the dot finally finishes growing on his hand. It’s midnight. His sixteenth birthday. A day he had been excitedly waiting years for and is now the worst day of his life.<br/>
</p><p>Because he’s a blue.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hunk &amp; Lance &amp; Pidge | Katie Holt, Hunk &amp; Lance (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron), Lance &amp; Pidge | Katie Holt</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>87</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. “Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.” ― Homer, The Iliad</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p><p>Lance sat silently in his bed; blanket tucked carefully over his head to hide the rest of the world from him. His hand hovering in front of his face, shaking.</p><p>
  <em>There’s no way.</em>
</p><p>Tears fill his eyes as a dot slowly begins to take shape on the back of his hand just, darkening in color as it grew to the size of a quarter.</p><p><em>This can’t be</em>.</p><p>Somewhere farther into the house a clock chimes the hour as the dot finally finishes growing on his hand. It’s midnight. His sixteenth birthday. A day he had been excitedly waiting years for and is now the worst day of his life.</p><p>Because he’s a blue.</p><hr/><p> </p><p>“Lance!”</p><p>A loud voice calls out to the young Cuban, jolting him from his stupor. He blearily sat up and looked around the bustling room. After the reveal and the horror had come and pass, Lance found himself unable to sleep for the rest of the night, reserved to instead lay and stare blankly into the dark, hiding his hand from even his own sights.</p><p>“Happy birthday buddy!” The voice calls out, and suddenly Lance finds his body lifted from the bed and pulled into a tight squeezing hug. “You’re finally sixteen! This is so exciting!”</p><p>Finally, being set back down, Lance let his eyes slowly trail up to look at the bright face of Hunk. The gentle giant of a boy had been his best friend since as far back as the two could remember, and it was bittersweet sorrow that they departed only a few months back after Hunk’s own birthday.</p><p>“So! Let me see it!” Hunk exclaims, a few grunts of irritation come from some of the other boys in the dorm room but the he ignores them instead to focus his excitement on his friend.</p><p>Lance tenses at the reminder of the impeding horror on his hand, quickly moving to make sure it is covered from everyone’s sight, trying as much as possible to be nonchalant about it.</p><p>“I really don’t think that’s a good idea…” he trails off, unsure what to say or do.</p><p>A gasp from Hunk draws Lance’s gaze quickly to his friend, heart skipping a beat in fear. But the look on the taller boy’s face is not one of disgust or anger, but pure unbridled excitement.</p><p>“You’re totally a red, aren’t you! Awe man! I know you jokingly said you would be and like I’m totally happy for you man, but I honestly was secretly hoping you would be a purple so we could hang out more again,” Hunk groaned, but the smile on his face showed he was actually happy for his friend.</p><p>Albeit for the completely wrong reason.</p><p>Lance let his friend ramble as his brain attempted to catch up to the situation. Maybe this is it, maybe this is his chance.</p><p>“Yeah, you totally guessed it,” he let out a nervous laugh, “Sorry, I just don’t want to be seen as bragging or anything.”</p><p>Hunk eyes widened before his face settled into a fond smile, “This is exciting, it’s your birthday and you’re a red. But what you’re feeling is valid. Here.” For the first time since being set down Lance notices that his friend had been holding a pair of pitch black gloves, “I went ahead and got your standard issued gloves for you on my way over from the purple dorms. You’ll get another set when you are officially moved to the red dorms tonight, but for now this can keep all the staring to a minimum.”</p><p><em>Fat lot of luck that’ll do, this school is filled to the brim with gossips.</em> Lance thought, but he still accepted the gloves with a gracious smile and thanks.</p><p>“Now hurry up and get dressed,” Hunk said, turning his back on his friend and walking towards the door, “Pidge said she would be meeting us in the Commons Area and you know what she gets like when we’re late.”</p><p>Shuddering at the memory while quickly slipping on the gloves, Lance jumps to his feet with newfound energy. Maybe things would work out okay after all.</p><p>“Would you two shut up, some of us are still trying to sleep!” A voice from a nearby bed grumbles right before a pillow makes contact with the back of Lance’s head.</p><p> </p><p>“I told you not to be late!” Hunk complained as they walked quickly through the maze of halls.</p><p>“I’m sorry!” Lance huffed, not feeling all that sorry, “Kinkade decided to start a pillow fight right as soon as you left the room. And you know I have to defend my honor in a pillow fight! I can’t let them see any weakness!”</p><p>Glancing over at the taller boy’s face, Lance could see him struggling to resist the grin that was slowly stretching across his lips.</p><p>“Oh no, heaven forbid someone actually beat Lance in a pillow fight,” Hunk rolls his eyes, and his voice is laced heavily with sarcasm, but there is still the glint of fondness to be seen on his face, “Hell would sooner freeze over before you actually let someone beat you. But, that doesn’t change the fact that Pidge is going to be out for blood.”</p><p>Feeling his face pale, Lance tried inconspicuously to speed up his walking, all while trying to casually clear his throat, “Come on, it’s my birthday, she totally has to cut me some slack today.”</p><p>The taller boy gave his friend a look but provided no words as they finally made it down the large staircase that lead to the main entry way, and just off to the side the Commons.</p><p>Leaning just off to the side of the doors leading to the Commons was a short girl with large glasses almost the size of her own face. Her attention was focused intently on the holo device resting above her hand. From his position Lance had no way of seeing what exactly was on the screen but knowing the young girl it could be anything from chemicals needed to build a bomb to the schematics for the newest holo pad.</p><p>“Pidge, hey!” Hunk calls out, waving as the girl looks up to stare that the boys quickly approaching her.</p><p>“You’re late,” she grumbles, pushing away from the wall to shove her holo into her skirt pocket, “you know I don’t like having to wait.”</p><p>“Sorry, my bad,” Lance grimaces, rubbing the back of his neck as he ducks under the glare directed at him from the much shorter girl. While she appeared harmless, the girl had a mean glare that could stare down even the strictest of teachers.</p><p>A few more seconds pass of Pidge glaring at him before her face finally melts into a half smile.</p><p>“Come on,” she says, turning her head and leading them into the Commons, “I put in a food request for Matt this morning. Specially for the birthday boy.”</p><p>Lance felt his heart swell in happiness as he follows his friend, trying hard to ignore the gnawing guilt and panic trying to take over his stomach.</p><p>“He did say we had to get here early to make sure we could get some,” Pidge just barely turns her head but it’s enough for Lance to see the icy glare directed at him, “But I’m sure he managed to save a few.”</p><p>The line for breakfast isn’t too long this early in the morning, many students preferring to risk missing breakfast for a few extra minutes of sleep. The trio easily slipped into the back of the line, Pidge and Hunk excitedly talking together about a recent project they had been working on in their engineering class. Lance silently followed them, happy to silently zone out the conversation full of technical words to instead let his eyes roam around the room. While still early there are enough students to cause a low buzz of conversation. Looking across his classmates Lance couldn’t help but take in all the gloved hands, upon receiving a classification everyone was administered standard issued black gloves to allow for continued anonymity. But this is a school full of kids who like to gossip, no one’s classification remains a secret for long.</p><p>
  <em>I can’t do this! Someone’s going to find out. And once they do, I’m dead!</em>
</p><p>Turning back to look forward in line, Lance happens to catch a glance of long black hair from a few people ahead of him.</p><p>
  <em>Keith?</em>
</p><p>Lance’s heart quickens at the sight of his rival standing obliviously with his back to him. Growing up they had never been exactly close but living together they at least had a healthy rivalry. Or at least that’s what Lance would call it. The day Keith received his classification, Lance wouldn’t say he was excited per say, but the idea of Keith being a red was something that made him happy. There at least stood a chance that they could have more classes together and continue their rivalry. Yeah, that’s exactly why he was excited.</p><p>“You mean you didn’t hear what happened to Allison?” Pidge’s voice draw Lance back to the conversation between the two friends and he looks over at the shorter girl in confusion.</p><p>“Allison, you mean the one who’s in our year Allison?” Lance asks, confused why they are bringing her up.</p><p>“That’s the only Allison we all know,” Pidge answers in clear annoyance, but quickly moves on, “Her birthday was last week. She classified as a blue.”</p><p>A chill ran down Lance’s spine as the blood rushed from his face.</p><p>Pidge noticed the look, but completely misread the meaning for it, “Yeah, she didn’t even make it to breakfast. Julie saw and ended up calling for an administrator to let them know. They took her and all of her belongings out of the room in less than like ten minutes. There was like no traces of her left behind, not a single hair or nothing!”</p><p>“That’s so horrible,” Hunk says, and the sadness in his eyes appear to be real, “I know I’ve heard stories from older classes about those who classify as blue, but it’s almost surreal having it happen to someone in our class. She’s the first one too, I can’t even begin to imagine the fear she must have felt when her classification came in as blue.”</p><p><em>I can.</em> Lance thought, choosing instead to turn forward as they finally reached the front of the line.</p><p>“Well, well, well, if it isn’t my favorite trio of troublemakers,” Matt stood on the other side of the glass barrier, a large grin spread across his face that is eerily similar to that of his sister. “You guys appear to be here a bit later than normal. That’s unfortunate that all the specialty food’s already gone.”</p><p>Matt turns his back to the trio, ignoring Pidge’s squawk in protest. Turning back around only moments later with a tray in each hand, a third peeking out from just behind him. “Good thing I made sure to set aside three plates.” Passing the first tray to Lance, the shorter man smiled with glinting eyes as he said, “Happy sixteenth birthday Lance. I hope today is a day you’ll never forget.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. “We men are wretched things.” ― Homer, The Iliad</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>It's time to learn a little more about the System and why Blues are so badly stigmatized.</p><p>“Lance, perfect timing!” Pidge rounds on Lance, her face shows a crazed look that only comes from her talking in science terminology for too long. “Tell Hunk that you need to double-modulate everything. It’s like basic one-oh-one of reconfigurations that you double-modulate everything!”</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Lancey!” A shrill voice called through the quiet hum of students talking during breakfast.</p><p>Sitting across from Hunk and Pidge who were engrossed in a lengthy discussion on robotics, Lance barely has time to brace as a pair of hands land on his shoulders and aggressively pushes him towards the table.</p><p>“Happy Birthday Lance!” the voice now shouts directly in his ear.</p><p>Lance shifts his head to the side just barely to see the bright face of his sister Rachel.</p><p>“This is so exciting; you finally got your mark and now you can move to the red dorm!” Rachel exclaims as she lets go of his shoulders only to plop down in the seat next to him with her back to the table. “I know it’s only been a year since I moved up to the red dorm, but honestly It’s so boring without you being there to annoy. I can’t wait for you to join us! I have so many things I want to show you!”</p><p>“You’re too loud,” Lance grumbles, ducking his head back towards his tray which is still mostly full as he picks at it, “There’s literally no reason for you to be this loud this early in the morning.”</p><p>Rachel gasps, “I’m sorry, but who are you and what have you done with my brother Lancey? You are literally the loudest person I know! Especially on your birthday.” Rachel leans into his field of vision and stares intently at his face, studying him. She then gasps again, this time in horror, “Don’t tell me. You’re not a red.”</p><p>His heart drops through the floor and his brain starts firing a million miles a minute.</p><p>
  <em>Am I that obvious, did she realize I got blue that quickly? She’s going to rat me out, isn’t she? I’m never going to see the rest of our family again!</em>
</p><p>“You got purple… didn’t you,” Rachel asks more quietly this time, and there’s tear forming in her eyes. Before Lance even has a chance to respond she throws her arms around his neck and holds him tightly, speaking quietly into his ear, “Don’t worry Lancey, it’ll be okay. Mom and Dad can’t get mad. We’ll figure out something to tell them and I’m sure they’d still let you come around even though you’re not a red.”</p><p>Lance’s heart catches back up to him. <em>She’s got the wrong idea; I still have a chance.</em></p><p>Reaching to grasp her shoulders, he pushes her gently away look at her now tear streaked face as she sadly looks back at him.</p><p>“That’s not it. I promise I’m not a purple,” he feels a moment of guilt for telling the white lie before continuing, “I didn’t sleep very well last night. I stayed up until midnight because I was really anxious to finally get my mark, I’m just kinda tired today, honest.”</p><p>Rachel’s face goes through a range of emotions before finally settling on amusement. She reaches up and wipes the tears from her face using the heel of her gloves.</p><p>“Lance, you are literally the prissiest boy I know. Your nightly routine is so structured, you know better than anyone else than to stay up that late.”</p><p>Rolling his eyes and releasing his sister’s shoulders, Lance turns back to his tray to pick back up his fork and continue pushing his food around. “Yeah, yeah,” he says sarcastically, “Scold me all you want, I know as well as you do that you also stayed up until midnight for your mark to appear.”</p><p>A loud bell tolls through the room, and Rachel jumps up with a new burst of energy.</p><p>“Oh no, I completely missed breakfast!” She cries, looking around as the rest of the students in the room began moving to dump their trays and leave the Commons.</p><p>“You’d think you would learn by now to actually wake up in time for food,” Lance teases while carefully tucking his untouched biscuit into a napkin and handing it to her, “Take this, you should be able to shove it down your throat without a teacher seeing you.”</p><p>Rachel cradled the napkin wrapped biscuit as if it were the greatest gift she had ever received.</p><p>“You’re literally the best Lance,” she cries, pulling him into another quick hug, “Let me walk you to class as a way to say thanks!”</p><p>Lance raises an eyebrow as he moves to dump his tray, only a few steps behind Pidge and Hunk who were still wrapped up in their own conversation. Rachel stumbled only a few steps behind him.</p><p>“Let you walk me to class and use me as an excuse for you to be late again? No thanks, I have Hunk and Pidge to walk with class with,” he places his tray on the return belt and turns to look at his sister’s pouting face, “Besides, won’t I be seeing you later with the rest of the family at my mark ceremony?”</p><p>Her face lights up again. “I almost forgot! No way anything will keep me from your mark ceremony.”</p><p>The two walk together out of the Commons, but quickly part ways, Lance walking with his friends to the 15s hall while Rachel made her way to the 16s hall. While walking next to his giant friend, Lance tried to pay attention to the conversation at hand but found himself unable to focus. Instead his focus was drawn to his heart that continued to beat irregularly at the reminder of the impending mark ceremony.</p><p>
  <em>If my status as a blue being discovered isn’t what kills me, then surely me having a heart attack at this rate will.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>“Happy Birthday, Young Lance!” Mr. Smythe shouted in his typical loud and exuberant voice as Lance walks into the room with his head ducked, “today is such an exciting day for you!”</p><p>Lance curls his shoulder’s even closer to his ears, slinking past the bright teacher with a murmured, “Thanks Mr. Smythe.”</p><p>“You’re sixteenth birthday, such an exciting day!” The orange mustached teacher continues speaking, oblivious to the young boy’s discomfort. “Nothing like your entire family coming out to see your exciting transition from child to young man!”</p><p>A pang of nausea grips Lance’s stomach, at it takes all he has not to lose his birthday breakfast right there in front of the entire room.</p><p>“Yeah, super exciting,” Lance mutters in an unenthusiastic voice, quickly turning away from the exuberant teacher to sit in his seat next to Hunk.</p><p>“Lance, perfect timing!” Pidge rounds on Lance, her face shows a crazed look that only comes from her talking in science terminology for too long. “Tell Hunk that you need to double-modulate everything. It’s like basic one-oh-one of reconfigurations that you double-modulate everything!”</p><p>Lance glances over at Hunk with an eyebrow raised in question as to what they have been talking about.</p><p>Hunk simply rolls his eyes before speaking in a bored voice, “Pidge and I are working on something outside of class, she put me in charge of reconfiguring the gendocam which can safely be done with single-modulation. But she’s insisting its worth the time wasted to double-modulate. It’s not as if this were a vlexagane or anything, now that would be stupid not to double-modulate a velxagane.”</p><p>For a solid minute Lance just stared back and forth between the two, letting the words said float through his brain in an attempt to make some form of sense. “Right…” he slowly responded, feeling relief when the bell finally tolls to mark the beginning of class.</p><p>“Righty-oh class, time to settle down. Let’s just take attendance right quick and then we’ll get on with today’s lesson,” Mr. Smythe calls from the front of the class over the sound of shuffling seats as students settled themselves in to begin the class day.</p><p>Still feeling residual dread from his entire situation, Lance lowers his head to rest on his crossed arms in front of him, resigned to just zone out.</p><p><em>Not like I’ll be needing any of this information after today anyways</em>.</p><p>“Mr. Smythe,” a voice calls out over the dying sounds of students as Lance peeks out of his cocoon and sees Pidge sitting with her back straight and hand raised, “I know it’s not relevant to today’s lesson, but I was sorta wondering if we could maybe talk about the System.”</p><p>The room stills. Mr. Smythe at the front slowly lowers his pen and notebook he had previously been marking attendance in. “I’m sure your history teacher has covered the System extensively in their class Ms. Holt, what could you possibly want to discuss in my class?”</p><p>A look passes between the two, almost as if the two were daring the other to back down first.</p><p>Pidge lowers her hand but maintains eye contact as she continues, “We’ve discussed the overall process of the System and the different possibilities being Red, Purple, or Blue. But all the teachers refuse to tell us what happens to the Blues when they present, or why it’s bad to be a Blue. It’s understandable to not want to tell us when we’re younger so as not to scare us, but most of us have already presented, and we’ve also lost a classmate to the System. Don’t you think we deserve just a few answers?”</p><p>Mr. Smythe lets out a long sigh before gently setting his notebook and pen on his desk. With slow calculated steps he walks around to the front of his desk and leans against it, looking straight ahead at Pidge when he asks, “What do you want to know first?”</p><p>“What makes Blues so bad?” This time it’s Hunk who asks, he squirms at the piercing gaze his question draws from his teacher.</p><p>Mr. Smythe takes a deep breath before beginning, “As you all know, the System was put into place hundreds of years ago when people first started presenting. Now this is not something covered in your textbooks, but the first people to start presenting were actually Blues. Everyone was confused, amazed, a bit fearful, but above all else, intrigued. Scientists spent hours studying the Blues, trying to figure out what made them present, what made them special, different. Many people started to believe them presenting was a sign from a higher being that they were intended to be an elite person, better than the rest. Many Blues quickly rose in power due to the status of their presentation; they became influential members of society. Not long after Purples started presenting in mass, and then finally Reds. But problems quickly began to follow. Blues were being caught doing heinous things, inhumane crimes, making decisions for the betterment of the few instead of the betterment of the masses. And then scientists found the connection, what made Blues so different and special, what separates them from the Purples and the Reds. Whereas Reds are tracked as being super kind, and empathetic, Blues, they are not.</p><p>Blues suffer from a condition known as Psychopathy.</p><p>Now at the time of this discovery Psychopathy was not something new. It was something being extensively researched, and with this discovery came a moral dilemma. You see, those who suffer from Psychopathy have faulty connections in their brains. They have little to no control over decision making capabilities and had a heightened reaction to reward stimulations in the short term. People suffering from Psychopathy also lack the ability to be empathetic, they are typically cold and only think of their own benefits. While in simplicity this may not seem dangerous, on a mass scale this was detrimental. In a society striving to help everyone, not just the one, Blues became a crack in the system of maintaining peace an order. And while studies have shown that Psychopathy could be controlled and suppressed, all it would take is one small trigger, one simple incident to send one of them over the deep end. A single Blue could lead to a large amount of death and destruction, but a collection of them could lead to entire genocides. So, a decision was made, that the lives of the many outweighed the lives of the few, and the Blues were determined to be removed form society…”</p><p>With his final words trailing off into the silence, the entire class sat stone still, afraid to even breath and break the tension weaving among them.</p><p>“What-” Pidge speaks in a hushed broken voice, taking a moment to clear her throat before continuing in a stronger voice, “What actually happens to Blues?”</p><p>Mr. Smythe’s face looks haunted, and he refuses to make eye contact with any of the students as he answers the question. “At first, they were taken to a separate living facility, provided ample food and housing, recreational activities, anything they could hope and dream for… But that wasn’t enough for them, they felt it was not justified for them to be treated that way… Fights broke out, thousands died… It was a dark time for everyone. When the dust finally settled and it was all said and done a decision was made, that Blues were too dangerous to let live. So, for the good of the society, whenever someone presented Blue on their sixteenth birthday, they would be removed from society completely. It’s a necessary sacrifice, so that the rest of us may all continue to live in peace.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Just something to keep in mind, I do have an education in Psychology and Behavioral Sciences. Psychopathy is actually a legitimate condition people may have, however it's not quite as severe as it's being made out to seem here. There are extreme cases as in the instance of Serial Killers, but honestly many people live with the conditions and are never diagnosed because of how mild they are. Essentially they are just very self centered people.<br/>No I do not see Lance this way, Lance cares way too much about people to ever be considered psychopathic, it just fits with the world I'm building.<br/>I'm also not too happy with this chapter, but I felt it was important to explain a bit more about how the System works and this was the best I could come up with to do so. Also to have it not explained by Lance himself but explain as well why the students didn't know before hand.</p><p>If something didn't make sense then please don't hesitate to ask me! I'm more than willing to further explain or rewrite a portion to better explain this mess.</p><p>And thanks for reading! I was so happy to see every Kudos and Comment that came in, really made my week!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. “Why have you come to me here, dear heart, with all these instructions? I promise you I will do everything just as you ask. But come closer. Let us give in to grief, however briefly, in each other's arms.” ― Homer, The Iliad</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>[Keith Enters Stage Right]</p>
<p>“No,” Keith says quietly, in a voice that would have been unintelligible if not for the silence surrounding the two, “No, this can’t be right. You- you can’t be a blue.”</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Pidge was fuming by the time they were walking out of the classroom after the bell rang to dismiss them.</p>
<p>“Necessary sacrifice. Necessary sacrifice he says!” She barks out a sardonic laugh, “Can you believe that load that he told us? There’s no way any of that is even remotely possible!”</p>
<p>Hunk flaps his hands in a hushing motion while peering over his shoulder around the busy hall to see if anyone was paying them any mind, “I get that you’re upset, but please try and keep your voice down a bit.”</p>
<p>“I will not keep my voice down-” Pidge begins again, raising her voice indignantly only to be cut off by Hunk gently wrapping his arm around her body and using the other hand to cover her mouth.</p>
<p>“I am more than willing to listen to you rant, but I will only let you go if you promise to lower your voice to a more appropriate level.”</p>
<p>Lance watched on in mild amusement as the two remained still in the stalemate. Finally, Pidge’s body releases all it’s tension and she minutely nods her head in agreement with the larger boy’s stipulations.</p>
<p>When she’s finally released and uniform put back into some semblance of order that she’s honestly never been fully capable of achieving, Pidge continues to speak in a much more controlled tone.</p>
<p>“I just don’t get it. All the things Mr. Smythe said about blues. It just doesn’t seem possible. We all grew up with Allison, she was probably one of the sweetest people we knew!”</p>
<p>Both Hunk and Lance had to nod their head in agreement at that sentiment.</p>
<p>“There was not a single narcissistic bone in her body. I mean, come on, that’s like saying Lance is a blue, like he’s the furthest thing from one!”</p>
<p>Unbeknownst to his two friends, Lance’s face pales at the reminder of his newly appointed secret status. He had almost for just a moment been able to forget what exactly he was.</p>
<p>Lance cuts off his two Pidge’s next words, “Hey, I need to head to the bathroom really quick. I’ll meet you guys in Mr. Iverson’s class.”</p>
<p>“Okay buddy,” Hunks says, flashing his friend a carefree smile.</p>
<p>“Just make sure you aren’t late,” Pidge warns, “You know how Iverson can get about being tardy, and he won’t have any regard for it being your birthday.”</p>
<p>Lance internally shudders at the memory of the last time he was late. “No need to worry there, I’ll be there.”</p>
<p>He turns and with a quick duck of his head melds into the flow of students heading back in the direction he and his friends had come from. There were a number of bathrooms closer to his next class, but those would undoubtedly be filled with others. For now, he just needed a few minutes by himself where he didn’t have to pretend that everything was okay.</p>
<p>As he got closer to the bathroom in question, his heart began to beat faster. There were too many people around him. They had to know. There’s no way they don’t know. They’re only biding their time until he is taken next. Blindly he pushed through a few students and ran the last few feet towards the door in question.</p>
<p>The door slams loudly against the wall as Lance pushes into the room, sparing just a moment to do a quick shoe check to see he’s completely alone before rushing to the sink. He braces his hands against the porcelain and takes deep ragged breaths, fighting to keep his breakfast down and his panic attack at bay. The almost restricting feeling of the gloves doesn’t help with his panic, leading to a feeling of claustrophobia as he aggressively rips them from his hands, throwing them haphazardly to the side before bracing himself again.</p>
<p>Taking a deep gulping breath, Lance looks up into the mirror before him, noticing how wide and panic his eyes appear, and the pallor and sheen to his skin.</p>
<p>
  <em>So much for playing to cool.</em>
</p>
<p>With jerky movements, Lance turns on the faucet to cold water, cupping it in his hands and carefully bringing it to his face in an attempt to calm himself some. He repeats the action a few times and almost misses the sound of the door opening quietly.</p>
<p>“Oh,” a voice softly calls out, and looking quickly over his shoulder Lance finds himself staring at a thin boy with pale skin and long hair.</p>
<p>Keith.</p>
<p>“Lance,” Keith says, voice soft in the echoing room, “I thought you were in class already. Everyone’s been talking about how you’re a red, so I guess congratulations are in… order…”</p>
<p>The boys voice trails off, and it’s at that moment Lance realizes his gaze is trained intently on him. Following the gaze, he realizes that his hand is out and on full display, the blue mark glaringly obvious to the world.</p>
<p>“No,” Keith says quietly, in a voice that would have been unintelligible if not for the silence surrounding the two, “No, this can’t be right. You- you can’t be a blue.”</p>
<p>His muscles which seemed to lock up in his time of need finally decide to move, and Lance quickly slaps his hand over the mark on the other, clutching the two tightly to his chest.</p>
<p>“Please, Keith. You can’t tell anyone,” he pleads, slowly back away from the other boy.</p>
<p>
  <em>This is it; this is how I die. At the hands of my rival.</em>
</p>
<p>Keith’s eyes quickly flicker back and forth between the other boys’ hand and face, before taking a quick surveillance of the surrounding bathroom. His entire demeanor seems to shift from shock to determination as he slowly moves towards Lance, hands held up as if to show he isn’t dangerous.</p>
<p>“Lance, I need you to tell me right now,” he says in a low voice, staring intently from under his eyelashes, “Does anyone else know about this?”</p>
<p>“What? Please, just promise me you won’t tell-“</p>
<p>His please are cut off by a sharp, “Lance.”</p>
<p>His eyes which had been rapidly shifting around the room, desperate to land anywhere except his rival finally settle on the boy, staring widely with blatant fear in them.</p>
<p>“I need you stay calm Lance and answer my question. Does anyone else know?”</p>
<p>The boys quick shake of his head seems to relieve Keith as he releases a breath that Lance hadn’t seen he was holding. Slowly the other boy began to lean towards the ground, picking up Lance’s discarded gloves as he spoke quickly and quietly.</p>
<p>“Here’s what you are going to do. You’re going to put these on and continue about the rest of your day like normal. As far as anyone is concerned you are a red, end of discussion. This evening when it comes time for the ceremony Shiro will be there, do not go with any other administrator except for Shiro, do you understand me?” He looks into Lance’s eyes looking for understanding. When he doesn’t get one he repeats himself, “No one but Shiro, Lance, got it?” Finally, Lance nods his head in understanding, “Shiro will know what to do. He’ll keep you safe. Promise me you’ll keep this between the two of us. Promise me you’ll only go with him.”</p>
<p>“I-I promise,” Lance chokes out, head reeling with everything as he reaches out to grab his gloves being presented to him. “Why are you…” Lance stops himself, unsure if he really wants an answer. But if he ends up dying in the end might as well get some answers before doing so, “Why are you helping me. I thought we were rivals?”</p>
<p>A look of shock and what could almost be read as hurt flashes across Keith’s face before it returns to its neutral expression. “I never saw you as a rival Lance. As far as I was concerned, we were friends, and I’m not going to let you die. Not today.”</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Almost as quickly as Keith enters the room, he’s gone. Leaving a slightly panicked Lance staring at the sealed door. While just minutes ago he had been desperate to get away from everyone and be alone with his knowledge, now he feels the emptiness left behind with the retreat of Keith. The aching feeling of loneliness is almost painful as he finally moves to put his gloves back on. Keith’s words echo through his head while he methodically worked.</p>
<p><em>“Trust no one but Shiro.</em>”</p>
<p><em>Shiro, he must be referring to Takashi Shirogane</em>. Lance faintly remembers an older boy from a few years back that went by that name. He had presented as a Red, but decided he wanted to help the education of those that would come after him, so he returned to the school as an instructor for those in the Red Dorms.</p>
<p>“He didn’t give me much reason to trust him, but I don’t really have any other options at this point,” Lance quietly says allowed to himself.</p>
<p>Looking into the mirror before him, Lance can’t help but flinch at his own reflection. A proud young man who took great pride in his overall appearance and skin care routine, the face staring back at him was one to shudder at. Tear tracks ran down his face, and while his skin was still pale his cheeks were flushed a rash-like red, the circles under his eyes that he had been fighting for years were out and present for the whole world to see. Taking a paper towel, Lance quickly wiped away the tears from his face, and pulling his emergency concealer out of his bag, went to working making his face more presentable for the remainder of the day.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Lance just barely manages to scrape under the wrath of Iverson, sliding into the classroom just seconds before the final bell announced him as tardy.</p>
<p>Pidge smirks and provides him with a thumbs up while Hunk shakes his head at their antics.</p>
<p>Without really intending to, Lance finds his gaze traveling to the back of the room as he walks to his seat. Sitting in the back, Keith looked for all intents to the world, completely disinterested in anything and everything going on. It’s almost a stark contrast from the worry and intensity he had presented to Lance only minutes before.</p>
<p>“You can take your seat any time now Mr. McClain,” Iverson snaps Lance out of his staring, the tall bald man towering menacingly just behind the boy, “While it may be your birthday, that does not give you an excuse to completely disregard the rules of the classroom.”</p>
<p>Lance sheepishly ducks his head and quickly makes his way to his seat amongst the snickers of his classmates. Before sitting down, he takes one more chance to spare a glance to the back of the room, only to be caught unprepared to see Keith staring directly back at him.</p>
<p>While still appearing to be disinterested, Lance feels he can almost see an intensity behind those eyes that he had never quite noticed before.</p>
<p>“Today McClain!”</p>
<p>The shouting voice causes Lance to jump, and his face is definitely blushing bright red now as he slides into his seat, trying hard to duck his face away from the snickering of his classmates.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So... I was trying to post every week... But that's just not gonna work out at the moment. I have like so many papers to write over the coming weeks, but my goal is going to be one new chapter ever two weeks. Once this semester is over I'll try and write more to post more often but we will see what happens when the summer months come along. I was actually planning on writing a bit more before posting this chapter, but where I ended it feels like a good stopping point and I really wanted to not wait an additional day to post it for you guys!</p>
<p>Also, I totally wrote the bathroom scene with the intention of it being apart of last chapter, but that felt too rushed so I put it to the side to instead explain how the system works. I wasn't sure if I was going to use it or not, but I think it fits into this chapter pretty well. So there it is.</p>
<p>Feel free to leave a comment!</p>
<p>And thank you again to everyone who has left a comment and Kudos so far. I love each and every one of you!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>